kgiff.com :: Kelly Gifford's Corner of the Web

There have been a lot of complaints about the new look of facebook.

As with any kind of change with any website people use on a routine basis, there is an outcry against the new changes. That's to be expected as people generally don't deal well with change. Typically we all get used to the changes and learn to accept and maybe even find that the new design works better. I don't think this is going to happen with the new Facebook design. The only thing this design did was make it harder to find the information I find relevant.

In the old design, I was very fond of the live feed tab, which provided a real time stream of what your friends were doing. This stream was updated automatically, without having to refresh the page. I wasn't too concerned when the rumblings about the redesign started because I assumed this was more of what was going to be surfaced in new layout. Instead it's not much more than a status update feed that may just as well be twitter.

The things I miss most are seeing when my friends are attending events (I may want to go too), friending new people (I may know them too), joining groups (it was hard enough to find updates about groups in the old layout, now it's pretty near impossible), and when my friends comment on other people's photos and videos (lots of times conversations happen around photos). The "highlights" area on the side in the new layout rarely provides information that I find relevant. For now the iPhone Facebook app still offers these features (although it doesn't allow you to click through to events).

Maybe I'll eventually get used to the new more limited stream of information, but as for now, it makes me feel like I'm missing information along with reading about applications updates I don't care to see.

Last year I ordered a book from Blurb and reviewed it here. I decided I'd do another book for 2008. This time I worked on it throughout the year.

The 2008 book is a compilation of all the pictures that Chris and I took, plus blog posts, and posts from tumblr. I got a little more adventurous and did some of the layouts myself instead of using the layouts provided by blurb. In most cases though, I still used Blurb's layouts.

I chose a 7x7 book because I like square things. I picked an Image-wrapped hardcover book -- an option that wasn't available last year, and upgraded to premium paper (another option that wasn't available last year). The cost of my 154 page book was $47.95. I uploaded the book on January 11th to the Blurb website and was given an estimated ship date of January 19th. On January 20th, I got an email apologizing for the delay in shipment due to some issues putting the book together and a code for $10 off a future order. My book shipped the 22nd and I had it the 23rd (I only paid for standard shipping).

I was stumped on a cover when I saw Lee's poster. Using a piece of software called Posterino, I made the cover (not quite as nice as Lee's).

The paper upgrade was well worth it. The pages are thicker and the paper as a bit more of a satiny texture. The only main complaint I have about the book is the bleeds did not go all the way into the spine of the book leaveing a bit of white showing in the middle of photos that spread across pages or pages with non-white backgrounds (as seen in the images below).

Overall, I'm very happy with the book and am planning on ordering another one next year. I really like the size of the 7x7 book. I think the price is very reasonable and until I have time to scrapbook again, this is a really good alternative. The photos are of decent quality -- even the ones taken with my iPhone.

Well it's 2009 already and this blog is still here. A little dusty perhaps but still here. I still haven't changed it like I was planning on, but let's face it, it may be 2010 before I get around to it.

We've had a busy fall raising a Riot and trying to keep Cisco and Berkley healthy. Riot is for the most part well-behaved these days and Cisco and Berkley seem to being doing pretty well too.

We had pictures of the dogs taken to mark Cisco's 7th birthday and Riot turning 6 months. They were taken by Stephen Bobb of FidoJournalism and we think they turned out fantastic! (The picture in this post is one of the ones he took.)

Chris and I are both starting the year with the same companies we started last year with (this might be the first time in a long time we can say that). I'm not sure we can say we'll be ending the year the same way, but time will tell.

I could end this post saying I resolve to start blogging more, but lets play that one by ear.

Wishing everyone the best for 2009!

Meet Riot, our golden retriever puppy. I was lucky enough to get one of the Comedians from Gaylan's Comedy Litter. Our little comedian was Mr. Green and he is a doll. When Riot grows up he'll do agility and obedience with Kelly, hopefully some pet therapy, and who knows what else. Chris is hoping he'll have a buddy to watch TV with too.

I drove to New York last weekend to pick him up. Everyone is settling in nicely, it was a rough couple of days but every day we're all getting a little more adjusted.

The weekend before Riot came home, Cisco had a fun filled weekend of agility and probably the most consistent he's been at a trial in a long time. We qualified in 5 of 7 runs for the weekend, and the other two we missed qualifying for by two weave poles and my handling mistake causing a refusal.